A Useful Life (2010)

×

A Useful Life (2010)

Close

In black and white, with non professional actors, and a minimal story with slow pace, it might seem another boring and pretentious experimental work. Quite the contrary it's a fascinating, melancholic hilarious and delicate testimony of some people's true love to cinema. People that work all their lives in film archives and cinemateques,and that dedicate their existence to preserve films, exhibit them and educate audiences, have never been better reflected in a movie. Going to in counter-current with the trivialization of the media and dominating pop culture full of vacuous digital "special effects", this work appeals to real "special affects" in order to introduce us to the daily work in the uruguayan Cinemateque, one of the most respected of the continent. It's not a documentary, although at moments it might feel better than one in approaching it's characters, most of them people who really work at the cinemateque or in the case of Jorge who are film critics, not actors. The surprise comes at the second part of the film, when reality and fantasy overlap and when the main character makes a strange and illuminating voyage through the streets of Montevideo in search of love and to reinvent himself through cinema. A precious jewel recommended only to those with sensibility and intelligence to appreciate this sincere declaration of love.

×

A Useful Life (2010)

Close